Still part of my photos from Big Bear is this Cassin’s Finch. The light was doing amazing things in the background, including making the pine needles on the tree behind her look like the shine from rain or metal. I just really love the colors happening here, which is nice because little brown birds don’t normally get much play on websites because of their “dullness.”

Seeing this bird made me realize that I don’t know how to tell a female Purple Finch apart from a female Cassin’s Finch, so I found this handy guide online.

This Burrowing Owl was sneaking around in it’s cage in the Safari Park through the grass trying to be extra sneaky. Not as cool as seeing it in the wild, but neat to see it all the same (the ones in the park are rescues that are so injured that they can’t be released back into the wild).